>>Still, even this now-necessary change was a near thing: although there was a
sense of urgency, the election of a Jeffersonian Republican majority in
Congress was the first so-called "sea change" in American Political History
and the political branches of the Federal government had other policies to
pursue throughout most of the Seventh Congress. It wasn't until the waning
months of that Congress, in 1802, that the proposal first proposed by
Congressman Smith nearly six years earlier was revived and very nearly
passed by the 2/3 vote required in each house of Congress to send proposed
Amendments on to the States: the House voted, 47 to 14, to approve an
Amendment mandating that the President and Vice-President be voted for
separately but, in the Senate, the proposal fell one vote short of the necessary
two-thirds.
New York Senator Gouverneur Morris- a Federalist whom we have already
seen as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787- cast the
deciding vote against: presciently, he was concerned that the change would
diminish the office of Vice-Presidency (turning it into a throwaway among the
largest political bloc instead of its intended role as the post awarded to the
second-most highly regarded potential President [but- in answer to Morris-
had Aaron Burr really been the second-most highly regarded presidential
possibility in 1800?]) and reduce it to what we today would call a political
football, one which would surely be used almost solely to balance the national
tickets which would result from the change. Morris, of course, spoke as the
voice of one who had been a Framer- but the Framers' political world-view
was passing from the stage by 1802 going into 1803. What is most interesting
about the Amendment which was rejected by the Senate is that it contained
something dropped by the time the eventual 12th Amendment was next
considered: it mandated that Electors be chosen by "electoral district" in each
State!
When the Eighth Congress [1803-05] convened, it was decided to try again:
on 2 December 1803, the Senate passed what would, this time, actually
become the 12th Amendment by a vote of 22-10; Gouverneur Morris was
no longer a factor: he had retired from the Senate between Congresses back
in March. Even so, however, it was a near thing again: on Morris' last official
day as a U.S. Senator, one new State had been admitted to the Union (Ohio)
and the Senate now had 34 members. 22 had been 2/3 of those "present and
voting" but NOT 2/3 of the total membership! This had never been an issue
before now: the Senate voted that "present and voting"- and not total
membership- was to be the criterion and the proposal next went to the House
of Representatives. After some debate, the proposed Amendment was
passed by the House on 8 December 1803 by a vote of 84-42, exactly 2/3
of those "present and voting" (but well short of 2/3 of the total membership of
142 in that body!!)
Still, there was no guarantee that the Amendment would be ratified in time for
the upcoming 1804 Election, but- lucky break # 5?- it was: On 15 July 1804
(or 27 July: the difference in dates has to do with the fact that New
Hampshire ratified on 15 July but the Governor vetoed the ratification and the
Granite State's legislature failed to override; Tennessee then ratified on 27
July 1804 to make 3/4 of the whole once and for all- assuming, of course,
New Hampshire's ratification was invalid), the 13th of 17 states ratified the
Amendment. On 25 September 1804, Secretary of State James Madison
declared the Amendment a part of the Constitution- with or without New
Hampshire (most constitutional scholars today would say that New
Hampshire's ratification was perfectly valid: Article V of the Constitution
requires only "the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several States" to ratify
Amendments [Governors, therefore, need not apply!]; however, in the early
19th Century, this was far from a settled question: Madison had prudently
waited for Tennessee before issuing his decree) and the new Electoral Vote
casting system was in place for the 1804 Election after all!
The "factions" were now the full-fledged Political Parties known as the
Federalists and the Democratic Republicans, and- as pointed out in a
previous Historical Analysis on this web site- these Parties would now
formally nominate the candidates for President and Vice-President well
before the Electoral College would even vote for them: first by the device of
"King Caucus" among partisans who were also members of Congress,
followed- in the 1820's- by the state legislatures nominating regional
candidates (which nearly brought back the presidential election system- if
only in part- envisioned by the Framers) and, eventually- beginning in the
early 1830's- the National Party Conventions. But all this was in the future in
1804, when the first election was held under the brand new 12th
Amendment.
The fifth election for President (and now Vice-President!) would have all
sorts of changes in how the States chose the Electors from four years before:
only six States- Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, New York, South Carolina
and Vermont- would choose them in the state legislatures. Four states-
Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina and Tennessee (the latter finally
abandoning its "county elector" system)- would use popular vote by district.
But the biggest change of note was that six states would now be using the
"General Ticket" (statewide popular vote): New Hampshire, New Jersey
(both of which had switched from legislative choice), the new State of Ohio,
Pennsylvania (returning after a stab at legislative choice four years before),
Rhode Island and Virginia. Masachusetts also used popular vote, choosing
17 electors by congressional district and 2 at-large. In all, 11 of the 17 states
would allow their voters to cast ballots for Presidential Electors (and, by
extension, President and Vice-President): it was the first time a majority of
the States used popular vote in the presidential election process!
The only change 1808 witnessed was the return to choice by the General
Court (the legislature) in Massachusetts. New Jersey and North Carolina
were the next to abandon popular vote for legislative choice of Electors for
1812: the new State of Louisiana also used legislative choice; however,
Massachusetts had returned to election of Presidential Electors by popular
vote per district for that election. For 1816, the new State of Indiana used
choice by its legislature and Massachusetts- seemingly having trouble settling
on a permanent system- once more returned to legislative choice while New
Jersey and North Carolina returned that year to popular vote (both "General
Ticket" statewide popular vote). Of the 19 states participating in the 1816
presidential election: 9 chose their Electors in the legislature, leaving 10 using
popular vote (7 utilizing a statewide "General Ticket", 3 electing Electors by
district).
The election of 1820 saw one-party government for the only time in
American History as the Federalist Party was in its death throes and James
Monroe's Democratic Republicans ruled the roost. Five new states had been
added since the last election: Alabama and Missouri had opted for legislative
choice of Electors, while Mississippi utilized "General Ticket" popular vote
and Illinois used popular vote by district; Maine used popular vote by district
with 2 Electors chosen at-large. But the trend was clear: Connecticut had
finally switched from legislative choice to "General Ticket" popular vote and
Massachusetts abandoned legislative choice once and for all to adopt the
same system its daughter State of Maine was using. Clearly, the days were
numbered for the use of legislative choice to "appoint" Presidential Electors as
America was now well into the so-called "Era of Good Feelings" but, at the
same time, heading headlong toward the democratic upheaval eventually to
become known as the "Jacksonian Revolution". In all, 9 of 24 states were
using legislative choice of Presidential Electors- but 15 [!] were now using
popular vote (6 by district [in some form or fashion] and 9 via statewide
"General Ticket").
1824 saw Alabama, Indiana and Missouri switch to popular vote for Electors
(Alabama and Indiana by "General Ticket"; Missouri by district) from
legislative choice: only 6 states now chose Electors via the legislature. Of the
two popular vote options, statewide "General Ticket" was, by far, the most
popular (12 states [half the total number of states]- after Massachusetts had
switched to it as well). It is no accident that the 1824 Election is the first for
which popular vote returns for President become a staple of the Appendices
in most American History books! 1824, however, saw the Democratic
Republicans break into "factions" as four candidates- from ostensibly the
same Party- sought the White House.
On 9 February 1825, the Eighteenth Congress tabulated the Electoral Vote
and, after finding that John C. Calhoun of South Carolina had a majority (182
of 261) of the votes cast by the Electors for Vice-President and was thereby
elected to that office, found that no one had gained a majority in the Electoral
College and- for only the second time- the House of Representatives was
now to be obliged to choose the new President. Under the 12th Amendment
which had come into being as a result of the last time the presidential election
had been thrown into the House, the choice would be between the highest
three vote-getters (in order: first place Andrew Jackson of Tennessee,
runner-up John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts- the son of the outgoing
President the last time the House chose the President, with William H.
Crawford of Georgia [who had been nominated by "King Caucus", thereby
demonstrating the ineffectiveness of the Congressional Caucus by this time]
as the "show horse")... the "odd man out" among the four candidates was
Henry Clay of Kentucky.
Unlike in 1800, however, the House vote was over rather quickly- only one
ballot was necessary: Adams had the vote of 13 State delegations to the
House (Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut,
Vermont, New York, Maryland, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and
Louisiana), leaving Jackson with 7 states (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South
Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Indiana) and Crawford with
4 states (Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia). Clay had thrown
his support behind J.Q. Adams (amid cries of a foul "deal" by Jackson
supporters- made more believable when Clay became Adams' Secretary of
State!)- which was how Adams picked up Ohio, Kentucky and Missouri
(which had all gone for Clay in the Electoral College) to gain his majority of
the States in the House balloting.
The Democratic Republicans now basically consisted of two warring factions:
President Adams' (and Secretary Clay's) "National Republicans", opposed
by the "Jacksonian Democrats"- within a decade, these two factions would
become two new Political Parties: the Whigs and the Democrats,
respectively. 1828 was to be the "Jacksonian"s' revenge: however, Andrew
Jackson's cause was helped greatly by the tidal wave of "Jacksonian
Revolution" which swept the Electoral College. Georgia, Louisiana, New
York and Vermont abandoned the choosing of Electors by the legislature in
favor of popular vote- all but New York going to the statewide popular vote
"General Ticket". Only two States were still choosing Presidential Electors by
legislature: Delaware and South Carolina; Delaware would abandon
legislative choice (in favor of the "General Ticket") in time for the 1832
Election, while South Carolina would stubbornly hold onto legislative choice
until post-Civil War Reconstruction in the late 1860's would finally force its
hand. Thereafter, legislative choice would only be used in special
circumstances (time constraints between admission of a State and an ensuing
Presidential Election, for example- as with Florida's readmission in 1868 and
newly admitted Colorado in 1876- or a divided result in the popular voting
[in 1848, Massachusetts' legislature chose the Electors as no slate of Electors
had a majority in a three-way race between Democrat, Whig and Free Soil:
under state law at the time (since repealed), the legislature would make the
choice absent this required majority]).
But the other factor during this time of "Jacksonian Revolution" was the
complete abandonment of electing Presidential Electors by district as well: in
1824, six states (Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Missouri and
Tennessee) elected Electors by popular vote per district. Four years later
[1828], Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri had all switched to "General Ticket":
as noted above, New York had switched from legislative choice to district
popular vote (with 2 at-large Electors chosen by the 34 Electors elected by
district)- leaving four states with districted popular vote. But Maine, New
York and Tennessee went to "General Ticket" for 1832- leaving only
Maryland still choosing Electors by district. And, by 1836, Maryland itself
had gone over to "General Ticket" choice of Presidential Electors.
With the two newest States of Arkansas and Michigan adopting "General
Ticket" as well for the 1836 Election, all but South Carolina (the last bastion
of legislative choice, as noted above)- 25 of 26 states in all- were
"appointing" their Electors by statewide popular vote of the People of these
States. The roots of the present "winner-take-all" (that is, to the winner of a
statewide plurality goes the Electors) Electoral College system was well in
place by 1836. One can only wonder how different things would have been
had that original version of the 12th Amendment which had failed by
Gouverneur Morris' single vote in the Senate of being sent out to the States
for ratification back in 1802- and which had mandated "electoral districts"-
had been adopted instead!
1836 also saw the only time the Senate had to get directly involved in the
presidential (well... OK... in reality, VICE-presidential!) election process.
Under the 12th Amendment, the Senate would- voting as individuals and not
as States (and interesting difference from the procedure used by the House
when it has to choose the President!)- elect the Vice President if no one had
a majority of the Electoral Vote for Vice President. The Democrats- once
President Andrew Jackson had announced he would not seek a third term-
had nominated Jackson's second Vice President, Martin Van Buren, for
President and Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky for Vice President.
Johnson was a tough old Indian fighter who had- or so legend had it-
singlehandedly killed the legendary (in his own right) Tecumseh at the Battle
of the Thames (interestingly, Johnson was- at the time of that battle- under
the command of William Henry Harrison, the leading Whig candidate for
President in that same 1836 election!). But frontiersman Johnson was also
known to cuss with impunity (at a time when public men cursing in front of
ladies or generally swearing with alacrity was still the moral equivalent of a
"Monica Lewinsky scandal"): worse yet (for his time- and particularly his
State of residence), he had taken an African-American woman to be his
common-law wife! In the Electoral College, Van Buren easily got the
majority he needed to be elected President (170 of the total 294 Electoral
Votes) but the Van Buren state of Virginia refused to vote for Johnson (its
Democrat Electors casting their votes for William Smith of Alabama instead),
leaving Johnson- at 147 Electoral Votes- exactly one Electoral Vote shy of
the 148 needed to elect!
So, the election for Vice President was- for the first and only time- thrown
into the Senate: on 8 February 1837, after the Joint Session of Congress had
tabulated the Electoral Vote, the Senate retired to vote for Vice President.
Johnson was easily elected over leading Whig Vice Presidential candidate
Francis Granger of New York (the 12th Amendment mandating that the
Senate choose from the two highest vote-getters in the Electoral College),
33-16, in a vote that strictly followed party lines.<<
An excerpt from:
thegreenpapers.com |
